284 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Except in a few of the summer and autumn months, when they 

 are more or less dusty or littered with loose stone and rubbish, 

 they are muddy, deeply rutted, and frequently, after heavy rains, 

 badly washed and gullied. Water often stands in puddles in 

 the ruts and hollows, sometimes covering the whole surface for 

 considerable distances. They are more or less rough, stony 

 or sandy at all times, and when newly repaired, the material is 

 so applied, or is of such quality, that for long periods travelling 

 is more difficult and dangerous than before any attempt at im- 

 provement was made. 



They are, moreover, often unnecessarily hilly or undulating, 

 sometimes too wide for economy, but more frequently too nar- 

 row for convenience or safety ; besides, the surfaces are gener- 

 ally so formed as to invite or compel the travel to follow a sin- 

 gle track, confining the wear to one part, instead of distributing 

 it over the whole breadth. 



Importance of Good Roads. 



We hardly need to urge the importance of good roads, for 

 they are almost as necessary to the existence of a civilized com- 

 munity, as houses are for people to live in. 



Without roads we should never have emerged from barbarism ; 

 and every improvement upon them contributes to the advance- 

 ment of the people. 



The common roads are the principal means of communication 

 between neighbors, more or less near or remote, of facilitating 

 an interchange of good offices and new ideas ; they also permit 

 of an exchange of commodities, and thus in all ways promote 

 the intelligence and prosperity of communities. 



They are, besides, tributary to the railroads, carrying the sur- 

 plus products of industry to the nearest stations, to be trans- 

 ported to distant markets, and, in turn, distributing to us at our 

 doors the freights brought back for home use. 



The area benefited by railroads and local markets is extended 

 within certain limits, in proportion to the goodness of the com- 

 mon roads. A man living four or five miles from a market or 

 a railroad station on a very good road is practically nearer than 

 one living two or three miles distant on a bad one. 



At the West the writer has often seen two or three yokes of 

 oxen employed in hauling loads that would, on a good road, have 

 been light burdens for single horses. 



